Das perfekte Geheimnis

This movie is impressive, but not in the way that (the presumably paid) positive reviews put it. It is the most forced drama I ever witnessed on screen, with laughably stupid dialogue, a "twist" that you can see a mile ahead and banal moral lesson at the end. The whole script is basically one tired cliché after another, taken straight out of a telenovela, and induces lethal levels of cringe from start to end. I sincerely don't understand how anyone can manage suspension of disbelief, as the premise is unrealistic, especially more so as the story progresses.

Of course, to satisfy the Current Thing, the "good guy" turns out to be someone other than what he appears to be, and cheap shots are fired at the "bigots", so that the intellectually lazy can pat themselves on the shoulder. This stands in contrast to the cynical and unlikeable way the "friends" interact with each other for the whole evening. There is overt ridicule, backstabbing, envy and just plain aggression that in the real world would turn friends to enemies in a second, but apparently not in this parallel universe of make-belief scriptwriting.

The camera work was okay, the acting mixed with some good and bad outliers, but there is no way to save the viewer from an overdose of Fremdscham. Take this as a warning and spend your time in some superior way, eg getting drunk at the gas station with cheap Lambrusco.